Part 7
Vorenze awoke groggily to find he'd been using Lyra's shoulder as a pillow.
She was still asleep.
Maverick had taken over the watch in the middle of the night. Thankfully the night had been uneventful, and the guardsmen had got a decent rest for the first time in a long while.
There was still plenty of food left over on the long table from the previous night.
Pinkie, as usual, had provided way more than anyone needed.
A sound above Vorenze distracted him from his perusal of the scene.
"Looks like you've got yourself a friend there", said Maverick, from the sentinel's cockpit.
"Hmm", Vorenze agreed. He didn't see any point in arguing that fact.
"Don't think our superiors would have approved", stated the pilot, leaning back in his seat and lighting another smoke.
"They wouldn't approve of you smoking that crap either", pointed out the sergeant, catching a whiff of some narcotic agent in the air ," lucky for both of us, they're not here".
He looked back to the mint colored unicorn as she stretched, cat-like, and opened her golden eyes.
"Must admit though, they are cute. And we wouldn't be here now if it hadn't been for that purple one over there", he added, pointing at Twilight.
Twilight was sat at one end of the long table, talking with Fenrick and Maria.
Rarity and Octavia were sat across from each other around half way down the 30 foot long table, and both seemed to be nursing a hangover.
The rest of the camp appeared to still be asleep.
"Good morning!", called Lyra, trotting over to Vorenze.
"Good morning", answered the sergeant, 'Lyra isn't it?'
She nodded.
"Seems we had a quiet night", continued the sergeant ,"nothing happened whilst I was asleep Maverick?"
The sentinel pilot looked down at them, blowing a cloud of noxious smoke.
"Thought I saw something over that way around half an hour ago", he replied, pointing and nodding in the general direction ,"too far away to concern us just yet".
"Isn't that where that...staff you were looking for is?" asked Vorenze, addressing Lyra.
The unicorn nodded. "Could be they're here for the same thing as us", she answered.
"So what did you see?". She turned her query to Maverick, but the pilot directed his answer to Vorenze.
"Looked like an Astartes gunship".
"A what?" asked Lyra.
"Big flying machine that transports really scary soldiers", replied the sergeant, then turned his attention back to the pilot. "Any movement since?'"
"Nothing yet sarge".
"'Hmm. They're probably still looking, assuming this staff is what they're here for". Vorenze raised his voice. "Okay everyone, looks like we need to move out, so grab what you need".
This woke up all those still asleep.
Rainbow Dash groaned and opened her eyes slowly.
"Tell the guy with the hammer to lay off I've got a headache!"
"Can't handle the good stuff there eh pony?" laughed Fenrick.
Dash just groaned.
"Y'all need to build up some stamina there girl", laughed Applejack, tipping her hat back from over her eyes.
"GOOD MORNING EVERY PONY!!" This indicated a certain pink pony had awoken.
"Last night was super duper awesome! I love celebrating with new friends! Are we going to do our super important mission today? Is everypony ready?"
"Please let me shoot her..." groaned Fenrick.
Pinkie's splurge of speech was cut off abruptly by two beakers bouncing off the side of her head.
She turned slowly to see Rarity and Octavia glowering at her angrily.
Pinkie sat down, hung her head, then her mane fell flat and straight.
"What the?" started Vorenze.
"At least she's quiet now", stated Lyra as if this was perfectly normal ,"We need to get going anyway. I think everyone's ready".
A chorus of affirmation from the ponies greeted this comment as they grouped together, albeit some with more enthusiasm than others.
A sudden roar made them jump, as Bateman fired up the Chimera's engines.
Fluttershy leaped three feet in the air, and landed upside down in a comical attempt at playing dead.
"I guess you ponies aren't used to engines where you come from?", smirked Vorenze
"Not so loud, no", answered Lyra, still quivering a little.
"Care to board?" asked the sergeant as he walked around the back of the transport.
"I ain't getting in that thing!" snapped Rainbow Dash, "I want to feel the wind in my mane! And my heads making enough of a racket as it is!".
"Ah, suit yerself!", laughed Applejack trotting over to look in the back of the vehicle ,"second class transport sure beats walkin' anyways".
A chorus of agreement met this statement, and the remaining ponies filed over to the Imperial transport's compartment.
It was designed to carry twelve men, and with Maverick in his Sentinel and Bateman driving, there were only five left in here. Even when the seven ponies joined their human allies, (Fluttershy's prone and terrified form being dragged unceremoniously by Twilight), the compartment seemed relatively empty.
Dash landed on the back of the Chimera with a clunk of hooves hitting steel. No way was she getting cooped up in that thing!
The view was pretty good from this vantage point. The dust that had been kicked up from the battle had settled overnight, and she could see for miles.
Their destination was clearly visible, but a fair distance away. A section of the city which seemed to be relatively intact, considering how little was left standing here.
"Whoa!" she exclaimed as the tracked vehicle lurched in to motion beneath her unexpectedly.
"HEY!, A little warning next time!".
"Sorry" came Bateman's muffled voice from the other side of the roof.
The Sentinel walker creaked in to motion beside them moments later, it's own engine coughing in to life with about as much enthusiasm as Dash had when she awoke.
************************************************
A short time later, most of the group converged behind a wall overlooking the plaza where the Chaos thunderhawk gunship had landed.
Maverick and Bateman had stayed a distance behind with the vehicles, both as a rearguard, and to avoid drawing attention with the engine noise.
The sky was beginning to look stormy overhead, and the atmosphere felt oppressive.
Twilight looked out over the ruined wall at the scene before her.
The Chaos aircraft was a huge black boxy thing with gold details, a large eight pointed star emblem emblazoned across the side of the massive cannon mount on top of it.
It seemed surprising to her that such a thing could actually fly, although with the things she'd seen since coming here, Twilight was beginning to realize anything may be possible.
The vehicle took up around a third of the open space. It must have taken some real skill to land that thing here.
Twilight turned back to the assembled allies.
"I can sense the staff", she stated ,"it's in that building behind that machine".
The cathedral-like structure towered over everything, hundreds of feet high, and was one of the few structures in the city that hadn't been damaged by the Chaos forces.
This suggested that the building had some importance to the attackers, as nearly everything immediately around it had been leveled.
Behind the gunship, the main entrance to the building loomed, dark and foreboding.
A large human statue stood over the tall arched doorway, a tall, cloaked figure with a sword held point-down in front of it, his cowled head bowed.
Vorenze looked over the wall to get his own view of the scene.
Around a dozen chaos cultists stood around the grounded thunderhawk.
To the sergeant, the way they stood and the way they held their las rifles suggested little to no training.
"We need a distraction so me and Rainbow Dash can sneak in and grab the staff", said Twilight.
"I shall accompany you", stated Octavia ,"I have been around this area and I know a way in".
"I think we can leave this one to you ponies", replied Vorenze ,"these guys look like push-overs".
"Gee...thanks", muttered Lyra ,"do we look like soldiers?"
"We'll step in if we need to", answered Vorenze ,"there's certainly much worse came here on board that thing than these cultists. We need to be ready for them".
Twilight, Octavia and Dash disappeared round a corner.
"Okay girls, let's show these humans what we can do", said Lyra, standing and raising her voice.
A few stray las gun rounds indicated they'd been spotted.
Vorenze was right, these cultists were terrible shots. Most of the rounds went wide by several feet.
It seems the chaos forces were not expecting any attack, and simply left the cultists to guard the transport so the noise would warn their better troops.
"Hmph", snorted Rarity ,"a lady, a true lady, does not resort to violence unless it is absolutely nec..."
A las round had just zipped by her face.
A few scorched purple hairs drifted across her vision.
Her face was one of shock, her pupils shrinking to pin pricks.
"MY MANE!!", she cried ,"HE SHOT MY MANE!!"
Her expression turned to one of angry determination.
"Son of a...".
She strode purposefully forward, leaving her comrades behind her, oblivious to the wildly inaccurate laser fire around her.
Rarity planted her hooves, lowered her horn, and sent a pinpoint-accurate magical blast at each cultist in turn, pitching them to the ground.
"And to finish", she snorted, turning her attention upwards.
The huge statue above the doorway toppled slowly forwards, then fell from it's lofty perch.
It smashed in to the top of the thunderhawk, crumpling the the top of the ancient machine before it's ammunition detonated in a seething fireball.
Rainbow Dash paused for a moment, seeing the unfolding events through a break in the ruins around the cathedral.
"That...was.. AWESOME!!!" she squawked with a huge grin.
"Come on!" called Twilight.
Behind the wall, the guardsmen watched in stunned silence.
"Not bad..." stated Vorenze eventually.
"Not bad... for a girl", added Leroy.
"Hey, that'd have been pretty good for Marbo!" snapped Maria.
"Pretty sure that'll have got their attention", pointed out Natalia.
"You think?!" snapped Fenrick.
The sergeant bent his lapel up so he could speak in to the short range communications bead concealed there.
"Bateman, Maverick, I think we may need you're support here soon, head to our location".
Despite the comm bead's short range, two tinny affirmative replies crackled back over the speaker.
*************************
As Rarity stood there, her chest heaving with the exertion of using so much magic, it occurred to her that she was stood out in the open and began to make her way back to the group.
On the way she passed a completely stunned Lyra, who was still gawping at the devastation the fashionista had wreaked.
Head held high, she picked up the green unicorn in a pale glow and carried her back in to hiding..
"Impressive, pony" said Vorenze on their arrival ,"I didn't think you would have it in you to actually kill an opponent".
Rarity turned in shock.
"K...Kill?", she gasped ,"Dear me no! I merely wanted to teach those ruffians a lesson in good manners!"
"You haven't killed those cultists?", butted in a shocked Leroy.
"I... I could never do such a thing!", the white unicorn answered ,"they are merely knocked out, that's all".
"But that purple one... Twilight wasn't it?" started the commander.
"She only took out a machine though", replied Rarity, taken aback.
"A machine with a crew", answered Vorenze ,"there were three people in the head of that titan".
Rarity's expression was one of pure horror, as the events of the previous evening's battle played back in her mind.
"Please... Do not tell Twilight", she said eventually ,"she may not forgive herself if she knows she has taken a life".
"I suspect the lives of that particular titan's crew were forfeit long ago", replied Vorenze, "it's not common knowledge, but Chaos vehicles are sometimes possessed by a daemon. That daemon would have consumed the souls of the crew when it took over the titan".
"And how do you know this?", asked Lyra, finally coming back to reality. Secretly, the only part of Vorenze's explanation she'd actually figured out was 'the crew were eaten'.
"Some of the higher ranked officers were briefed about what we were facing here", he answered ,"I was lucky enough to be in on this meeting. I suspect Natalia over there was also listening in, as she's picked up on many of the enemy's weak spots".
Vorenze then realized that Lyra's question was aimed in a different direction entirely.
"Forgive me, I forgot that you ponies would not understand that the general populace are not informed about Chaos forces. Such is the way of the Imperium of man. Knowledge is the first step on the path to heresy".
He cleared his throat.
"I realized that the second warhound titan was possessed because it was actually bleeding from battle damage points. Only a possessed vehicle would do that. Also, the plasma weapon it was about to fire seemed to be powered more by sorcerous means than by technology".
The ponies reacted to this explanation with a stony silence, and the expression of someone who had only understood a fraction of what had been said.
"So... It was being powered by magic, not people?", asked Lyra, finally piecing together something she could understand.
Vorenze sighed. 'Explain, as you would to a small child...' he thought to himself.
"In it's most basic terms, yes. It actually had an evil spirit controlling it, which used magic".
"Oh", answered the green unicorn. This was clear enough to understand.
*************************************************************************************
Inside the Imperial chapel, the Chaos sorcerer who had orchestrated the whole battle of the previous few days stood before a statue. It was one of many lining the alcoves of this vast room, easily dismissed as something of little importance. Indeed, the statue itself was unimportant. Merely another representation of the false God Emperor designed to enthrall the common populace that walked these halls.
What he had come for was held in the sculpture's hands.
An eight foot long, ornate staff. The shaft was etched with many fine details, and seemed to glow faintly with the power it contained. It's head was a large metal ball, with two rings surrounding it. Seen from the end, these rings would have formed an 'X'.
To one who knew of it, the eight spikes around each of these rings pointed to it's allegiance.
Only a warrior who had survived from the dark days of the Great Crusade would know exactly to whom this mighty weapon once belonged.
One such as the sorcerer who now stood before it.
With a final few gestures, Ahriman, banished sorcerer of the Thousand Sons legion, dispelled the remaining wards which prevented the staff from being moved.
As he did so, a huge explosion rocked the building, throwing him and his five fellow marines to their knees.
"I thought we had disposed of the Imperial trash on this world", growled Balthius.
The Iron warrior was a useful ally to Ahriman, who lacked the support of most of his own legion thanks in no small part to his banishment by Magnus.
He had joined the sorcerer's force many years before, fetching his rag-tag squad with him.
Two World Eater Berzerkers, who's names had always been irrelevant, Lukion, a swordsman from the Emperor's Children legion, and Voldarius, a massive brute of a marine, his new stature a gift from his gods. Two leathery wings sprouted from his back, and his overly muscled, and now unarmored arms ended in wicked talons. He was no longer capable of carrying any ranged weapons, but his speed usually more than made up for that short coming.
"Go", stated Ahriman with a gesture to the doors ,"find what that was and deal with it".
He waited for the group to leave the room before turning back to the staff.
Which wasn't there any more.
A blind fury stole over the Chaos lord, but was quickly beaten back in to submission. The staff could not have gone far.
He looked around the room carefully, and spotted a brief flicker of color behind one of the pillars across the room. Whatever it was, if it had managed to get to the staff and back over there in the few seconds he had been distracted, it was incredibly fast.
*******************************************************************************
The three ponies stood in a small room which was an off-shoot to the main hall of this building. Rainbow Dash had proven her speed yet again by grabbing the artifact from behind that scary looking soldier who seemed to be in charge here whilst he was distracted.
Twilight looked carefully at the staff. It was large, much bigger than she had anticipated, and seemed to glow faintly along the scroll work on the shaft with barely contained power. The sphere on the end of it also seemed to carry a fantastic array of finely wrought engravings, although looking at them made her eyes ache.
However, something else was playing on her conscience whilst being this close.
The last time she had felt something like this was when a certain pony had come to Ponyville wearing an amulet.....
"Oh Celestia..." she breathed, "I hope you know what you are doing".
A thump brought her back to the here and now. Heavy footsteps.
"GO!"... she hissed at her companions, "take the staff and meet with the others. I'll try to buy us some time!"
The two other ponies looked about ready to argue with this decision, saw Twilight's mind had been made up and that time was short, then made a hasty retreat out of the room back to their friends and allies.
********************************************************************************
Ahriman reached the area where he had seen the movement, and looked around the pillar with a little caution. Hundreds of years of experience had taught him not to rush in to the unknown blindly.
What he saw took him by surprise.
A tiny purple horse-like creature with blueish mane, wings, and a horn. He quickly sensed that this creature had great psychic potential too; far greater than it's diminutive size would suggest.
The creature's first magical attack was only just blocked by a hastily raised kine shield.
The ancient sorcerer was thrown backwards in to the room several feet, although he retained his footing.
"Hmm", he began, straightening up, "I believe you have taken from me something which I have rightfully stolen".
"We were sent to recover that staff", replied Twilight through gritted teeth whilst walking out in to the room, "I do not intend to leave without it!".
"Then you leave me no choice but to take it back by force, strange creature", Ahriman finished.
His own staff glowed for a moment before unleashing a multi-hued blast of energy. Luckily for Twilight, she had been prepared for this, and the attack flared around her shield, instead blasting away the pillar she and her allies had been hiding behind moments before.
She then responded in kind, but the huge warrior was far faster than she expected, leaping aside and sending another blast her way in one fluid movement.
This spell crackled over her head, leaving behind a worrying scent of singed hair. The wall behind her crumbled away in a shower of dust.
This gave her an idea.
She shuffled sideways, making it look like she was sizing up her opponent.
Ahriman was wary. This equine creature was a small target, and was proving to be a capable opponent.
He was beginning to think that maybe a change of tactics may be in order when a series of smaller spells were sent his way.
Caught a little off-guard by his own wandering thoughts he nearly failed to evade them, his super human physiology making up for the momentary lapse. He responded in kind, the xenos creature hopping aside from his attacks, which instead blasted chunks from the masonry.
"Hold still creature" growled Ahriman, growing a little impatient. He swung his staff around, the tip of the weapon almost clipping Twilight's nose.
"I think not!", she responded, flying backwards in an attempt to put some distance between them.
Another powerful blast of warp-spawned magic narrowly missed her, smashing out another pillar.
Twilight was beginning to grow weary. The magical warrior she was facing didn't seem to be tiring at all, and it was only a matter of time before she made a mistake which could cost her her life.
She only hoped her plan would work. It relied on her not getting too close to her enemy, who would almost certainly overpower her in physical combat, and keeping him distracted from her true plan.
She carefully positioned herself close to the exit to the building, near to one of the columns.
"I have you now", snapped Ahriman, leveling his staff. The pony (he'd decided that was the best description for this creature), looked ready to leap to it's right, but he second-guessed that this was probably a feint, and sent his last attack slightly to her left.
The magical attack tore through the pillar in a cloud of masonry and dust, but also blasted the purple equine clean out of the building.
"Hah!" he laughed smugly, seeing his adversary's prone form on the grassy area outside the vestibule door. As he began to walk forward to get a better look at his strange opponent however, a slab of stone smashed down beside him from the roof.
Ahriman looked slowly upwards, realization dawning on him of what that pony had really been planning.
He barely began to utter the words "OH SH..." before the whole building crashed down around him in a shower of broken stone and dust, trapping the sorcerer under tons of rubble.